Living her dream in New-York, Anzu never expected to see Kaiba again, but when she does, he's colder than ever. Anzu is determined to help him, can she pierce the walls around his heart, can she even stand what awaits behind them? KxA

Hi everyone, I'm really sorry for the long wait in putting out my new story, especially after saying I'd put in out two weeks ago. Truth be told, when I said that I would update after my exam week I forgot that I had two other exams two week later that were even more important than the three ones I had. Considering that Anatomy is my biggest class and that I had my final exam in behaviorism I really had to study.

Tristan: Will I play an important role in this story?

Arrow:...........................................Actually, I wonder if I'll even need you. I know Yugi will play some part later which remains me, I kinda said at one point that I would try and make Yami appear more in my next story.....well sorry but as much as I like him, he's most likely gone to the afterlife or something like that.

OK, before we start, I actually did my homework before starting this story and checked out the details and such to reduce mistakes to a minimum (Sorry but I'm not talking about grammatical mistake, though I will do my best). That being said, I don't own Yu-gi-oh (can someone please tell me why everyone says that) However all character in this fic that are not from yu-gi-oh are from my imagination and therefore belong to me. The only real place in this story should be Juilliard (and yes I did some research concerning this too), and so all other places that are not from Yu-gi-oh are from me and if they look like any existing place you may know it is pure coincidence (or laziness from my part)

Constructive review are welcome and wanted, I will try to update as quickly as I humanly can but I am still busy and might reconsider my decision to stay an active writer if I don't receive anything on your part after all the efforts I'm putting in this while I could and should probably be doing something else. I really need some encouragement for this as it will most likely not be a short story and I plan on trying to make it my best one. I really like writing and I'm hoping for good support for this story.

Anyway, you know what? I guess I'll be able to write more from now on, really, I'm starting to get the beat and it's actually less stressful and less work than college. With that let's start.

As you can guess, this will be once again a Seto/Anzu fic, for now I don't really plan on other couples but that might happen eventually but since the story is mostly taking place in New-York I'm afraid the others won't be playing a big part in it.

Chapter one: Coincidental encounter.

Anzu sighed as she looked at the luxurious hotel in front of her, the Casa Loma hotel, one of the most prestigious hotel of New-York. Only the richest out of the richest could afford to stay in this place, spending only one night in the cheapest room would cost Anzu a paycheck for at least three weeks. But one day, when she would be our of school and famous she was definitely going to come back here for a night or two and get pampered like a princess. Yea, that would be nice. She thought, giggling to herself as she made her way around the building and entered by the staff door.

As soon as she got inside she was surrounded by dozens of other employees frantically running everywhere...Yes, today was one of those horribly busy days making you wish you were hit by a bus on your way to work. Anzu opened her locker and grabbed her uniform before going to a dressing room. As she dressed, she couldn't help but think about Joey and just what he would do to see her in her chambermaid uniform. She smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror. At the very least, the uniform wasn't whorish or anything. It was a simple uniform: a long sleeved black dress that went down a little below her knees with a white apron that tied in her back with a large bow, a white headband, black tights and little black shoes...which were even less comfortable than they looked.

Satisfied with her look, Anzu left the dressing room and started her work, silently humming to herself. Now was the easy part of her job: cleaning rooms after clients departure and preparing them for the new ones. That sounded easy enough when Anzu first applied for the job, even enjoyable for someone who liked, or at the very least, didn't mind cleaning. But in all truth it wasn't the case, no matter how much you enjoy something, there is a limit to the number of times you can do it and still enjoy it. And after almost four months of cleaning and preparing at least twenty rooms per days, six days per week, Anzu was well passed that limit.

But if only it was just that. Almost every day she would find a room totally trashed or traces of a heated night everywhere, that made her glad she wasn't the one actually cleaning the sheets but now she knew she would never be able to sleep in hotel drapes, no matter how clean and comfortable they looked. Then there was the stealing, a lot of stealing actually. Anzu couldn't understand why people who could afford to pay over 2000 dollar for a single night would steal cheap shampoo and mini soap bars but it still happened all the time.

But those times felt like heaven when compared to when she had to interact with those people. Sure, some where really nice and gave more than generous tips but most mainly ignored her or looked at her like she was a leach or something, though she didn't mind those either. However some where just downright unbearable. She saw just about everything in the two summers she worked here, from the old perverted man trying to bed her to the ten years old kid who's call her every two minutes for just about anything and trashed the room just to laugh at her while she cleaned it, without forgetting the fat lady who kept insulting her and accuse her of everything she could think of. The worst part was, she couldn't defend herself, the client was always right and she knew if she dared to say anything, no matter how big the injustice, she would lose her job.

Why was she working here in the first place? Truth be told, there was a simple reason, the pay was worth it and tips were more than substantial. She would never make as much money in a fast food or any other job she could be qualified to do. And beside it was only for summer, it was her last week, in five days she would start her third year of study at Juilliard and she couldn't wait. After finishing High school two years ago, she traveled all the way to America to try out for Juilliard, she still had troubles believing that she got in on her first try. She loved it more than she ever thought possible and was eager to start yet another year but at the same time she felt sad for not being able to go and visit her friends and family this year again. She simply couldn't afford to go, she was barely managing to get by so traveling to Japan wasn't possible, therefore she hadn't seen her friends or family in the last two years and she really missed them.

"Hey! Anzu! Are you done? It's about time to head to the kitchen."

Anzu turned around and smiled when she saw Kaytleen coming her way. "Yea, that was the last one." She answered, she hadn't realized four hours had passed since she started working. The two girls walked together toward the staffroom. Kaytleen was Anzu's roommate and one of her best friends here in America, it was thanks to her that she got this job too, her cousin was reasonable of the human resources or something like that. She blond woman was studying to be a doctor, she was studious and Anzu was amazed at all the stuff she knew, she was a blunt and rational woman, she didn't always take other's feelings into consideration before speaking but her advices where always valuable when you could ignore her forwardness. When they arrived, the two girls changed in another uniform: a slightly shorter black skirt with a white blouse and a sleeveless black vest over it. Today she had to work as a waitress too, she didn't normally do this, but today was special.

There was this huge charity ball taking place, it was a prestigious even held only once a year where the richest persons around the planet came for an evening of entertainment and gave money on various charitable organization. Of course it was always good for the image and a good chance to discuss business with people from all over the world but Anzu wouldn't complain about it, they did give large amount of money last year. You could say the entire hotel had been rented for this single night and since there was a full 5 services dinner for over 300 persons, they needed a lot more waitress than usual. Once both girls were ready, they joined with the other waitresses and waited for instructions.

Soon the head cook arrived and they started sorting things out and preparing everything they would need for the evening. The next hour or so passed quickly as they prepared the first service and divided themselves into team and decided what section of the dinning hall each team would be responsible of, soon it was time to start serving the first course. Like he always did before such important events, the head cook assembled everyone for his oh so inspiring speech.

"Ok Listen up. This even is the most important of the year, anyone who screw this up will pay dearly. I will not stand for anything short of perfection." They all nodded and quickly grabbed the salad bowls before forming a line in front of the door, as the door finally opened, Anzu and her two teammates for the evening swiftly walked through the tables to reach their assigned section. Things started out smoothly as they served the first three tables without any incident, Anzu had the feeling tonight wouldn't be so bad after all. However as they reached the last table someone called out to her. "Anzu?"

Anzu looked at the source of the somewhat familiar voice and found herself staring in two blue-grayish eyes, eyes she would recognize anywhere. "Mokuba?" She asked in disbelief, on her right was sitting a teen around sixteen, he still had long black hair but his features were sharper than she remembered, though his face looked more mature, his eyes still had a childish glint in them. It was the younger Kaiba alright...which could only mean...

"Glad to see you finally understood where your place was."

Anzu turned her head to look at her left, sure enough there was the last person she ever wanted to see again: Seto Kaiba in all his bastardness. "It's so nice to see you too Kaiba." She forced a smile on her face, trying her best to ignore his mocking smirk as she put the salad in front of him. "I have to go." She said apologetically to the younger of the two, she would be in trouble if her boss saw her slacking and she truth be told she didn't want to stay anywhere near Kaiba right now.

Mokuba smiled. "I understand, I'll see you later then."

Anzu sighed as she sad down in the staffroom with the other waitresses, they had to wait until everyone was finished with the first course before going back out there and cleaning everything before the main one. But Anzu wasn't looking forward to it, she's had to face Kaiba again and worst, she would have to clean his dishes and serve him his other courses.

"What's wrong Anzu?"

Anzu forced on a smile as Kaytleen sat down next to her. "Oh nothing, except that I had to serve his food the his majesty of the pain in the ass Seto Kaiba."

Kaytleen smiled. "Oh." Kaiba had been a topic of discussion at one point when Kay first talked about the job to Anzu, she wanted to make sure the brown haired dancer wouldn't to all clingy or beat the crap out of the demanding and arrogant costumers. "I can switch team with you if you want. I don't mind."

Anzu smiled, it was a tempting offer as knew Kaytleen had a tendency to be unaffected by a lot of things but... "I can't, if I do he'll see it as running away from my part and he'll make this even worst."

"You're putting to much thoughts into this Anzu, you haven't seen him in over two years, what are the chances you'll see him again. Beside, what does he cares anyway?"

Anzu sighed. "Oh you don't know him like I do, he always hated me and my friends and he'll take any opportunity he has to rub it in my face, if I switch place with you I'll be telling him that he actually got to me."

"Well if you change your mind." Kaytleen said as she stood up. "You know where to find me. Now come on, it's time to start working again."

The rest of the meal went relatively well for Anzu, considering she had to wait on Kaiba things could have been a lot worst. The young CEO actually kept silent whenever she was near, of course it probably wouldn't look good if he passed the evening harassing a waitress and she guessed that was the reason for his silence. However, she could feel his gaze on her whenever she was near his table, that stare made her feel increasingly uncomfortable, as if he was looking directly inside of her, she could practically hear him mock her from his stare. She did her best to ignore him ans show him she didn't care, anyway like Kay said, she wouldn't see him again after that...unless he stayed at the hotel for the night? She shock her head, she doubted that was the case, she always knew Kaiba was somewhere in New-York all this time, she just never expected to meet him, after all it was such a big city, no doubt he would go back to wherever he lived once the evening was over...though she wouldn't put it past him to stay just to make fun of her.

Anzu sat tiredly on a chair in the dressing room, serving dinner had been long and Kaiba's stare hadn't helped. The evening was only just beginning for all those rich snob but her shift was done and she couldn't wait to get home and take a long hot bath, her back was killing her from all the walking and she couldn't feel her feet anymore. She bent down to remove the small black shoes as Kaytleen entered the dressing room.

"Guess who I saw." She said, sitting down next to the young dancer to remove her own shoes.

"Can't blame him." Anzu said, changing out of the uniform and putting her normal clothes on. "Being in this kind of place with his father really is though on him." Once they were both ready they walked out of the dressing room with the firm intention to spending the rest of the evening laying around and wasting time.

"Anzu?"

Both girls looked behind them and Anzu smiled when she saw the young teen. "Mokuba!" Now that she wasn't working anymore, nothing stopped her from running to him and throw her arms around him in a tight hug. "I missed you so much." She let go of him and looked at him up and down. "Just look at you, you look-"

"Incredibly sexy, I know." He cut her off with a smirk so much like his older brother before laughing. "But what about you? What are you doing here?"

"I'm working here, as you saw, but it's just a summer job." She answered.

Mokuba's eyes lit up. "That's right, Yugi told me you were accepted in Juilliard. And I never had the chance to congratulate you."

"It's ok Mokuba. Oh, I almost forgot, this is Kaytleen, my roommate and one of my best friends here in America." She said, presenting her friend.

Mokuba greeted her with a huge smile before giving Anzu an apologetic look. "I'm sorry but I have to head back before Seto realizes I'm gone." He hesitated a little before speaking again. "I apologize for the way he acted toward you, time didn't made him any better unfortunately." He looked down slightly.

Anzu was surprised to hear Mokuba say something even slightly bad about his brother, but then again he was a teen now, old enough to understand his brother wasn't as perfect as he pictured him as a kid. "It's ok, I wasn't expecting him to, beside you don't have to apologize for him."

Mokuba smiled up at her. "I'll call you ok? I'd definitely like to have a decent talk with you before going back to Japan."

"Sure!" Anzu said, giving him one last hug before the younger Kaiba walked back inside the dining room and disappeared from her view.

The next morning Anzu still had to go to work, but she wasn't complaining, she needed the money and beside she only had three days of work left before school started. She was humming happily to herself as she walked down the hall on the third floor toward the next room she had to clean when a door behind her opened.

"Hey you!"

Anzu turned around to look at the young woman who called her out. "Yes?" she asked politely, the woman was young, around Anzu's age with long blond hair and brown eyes, she was tall and extremely thin. Anzu instantly recognized her as Milly Stellar, one of the most popular supermodel in America at the moment.

"I need you to make my bed." She said harshly.

Anzu ignored the tone of voice and walked back to the room. "Of course." She said kindly, thought her in mind she wondered what was wrong with these people, unable to do their own bed at their age. She skillfully made the bed and turned back to look at the other woman. "Will that be all?"

"It's not even." The young model answered.

"Pardon me?"

"The bed." The blond woman answered impatiently, as if she was speaking to a deficient child. "The covers are longer on the left side.

Anzu frowned slightly as she took a few steps back to stare at the bed, sure enough, the covers on the left side was going one inch lower than on the right side, but who in their right mind noticed this sort of things and better yet, actually cared? As she made her way back to the bed to 'fix' it, she suddenly became aware of the look the other woman was giving her, she could feel her stare burn holes on her back and held back a shudder, what was wrong with this woman?

"Now the right side is lower."

It took all of Anzu's willpower not to kill the woman as she made her fix the bed three more time before she was satisfied. "Anything else?" Anzu asked with the most fake smile she ever had to pull, something told her the woman was far from done and she was in for it.

"The bathroom is dirty, you can't expect me to take my morning bath is that disgusting room, clean it."

Anzu walked to the bathroom to check it out, as she expected there was nothing wrong with it, hell, it was so shiny she wouldn't mind eating directly on the floor. This time Anzu sighed, wondering what she did to deserve this.

"I swear she was absolutely horrible, she was a witch." Anzu complained later in the evening. Milly, the model who called her to do her bed, made her work none stop for over five hours, complaining about imaginary things. "I swear she made me clean the freaking bath three times, she would have asked me to paint the wall a different color if she could. And she wouldn't stop glaring at me like I did something terribly awful to her, it was creepy."

Matthew laughed softly as he skillfully mixed various ingredients in a bowl. "Did you?"

Anzu frowned, she would remember it if she had done anything to make someone that angry at her. "Of course not, I never even saw her before."

"Then maybe she was dumped or something like that yesterday and she needed to take it out on someone, people like her who gets to be one the top of the world quickly and without effort often start thinking they are over everyone, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just tell yourself that in three months she'll be a nobody again, it will make you feel better." Matt answered, butting some chocolate looking mixture on a cooking pan. "Why did you let her treat you like that anyway? I mean if you stick up to Seto Kaiba then why not to her."

Anzu sighed. "Different circumstances, if I had said anything I would get fired and have to find another job next summer, you should know my boss would never do anything to displease one of his precious rich costumer. I get paid too much to let a model sick in the head make me lose it."

Matt smiled sympathetically, he sure knew what she was talking about. "Here." He handed her the spoon he used to mix his recipe.

Anzu smiled at the fudge covered spoon and quickly licked it off like a 5 years old. "Tastes even better each time you make it. You're so much more useful to have around than Kay."

"I heard that!" Kaytleen replied from the living room.

Anzu laughed softly as she looked up at Matt, she could tell he was upset by something, she knew he was cooking to keep his mind occupied, he always did that. Beside his large green eyes were like opened windows and she could see he neglected his appearance this morning, which was definitely not like him. "By the way, how did things go for you at the dinner yesterday." She asked, knowing that talking about it would make him feel better.

Matt's bright eyes darkened considerable as he sat down on the chair in front of Anzu, his perfectly straight black hair hiding part of his face. "Worst than anything I actually expected. He kept insulting me, complaining about every little thing I did wrong, He even said I was a shame at some point." As he said the last part, tears formed in his eyes as he fidgeted nervously with the piercings on his lower lip, which Anzu knew to be a fake, his father would kill him if he ever dared to get a real one.

Anzu couldn't help but smile sympathetically a the sight, she had never seen Matt's father in person, but she knew enough about him from Matt and the Media to know the old man would disown his soon and never speak to him again if he ever learned the truth about his only soon. With his straightened black hairs with blond locks, the fake piercing and the clothing, Matt looked nothing like the son of one of the most successful businessman of America.

"I wish he could just see me as I am and stop trying to make me someone else." Matt said. "But I guess that's not happening anytime soon." He stood up to go and check on his fudge, indicating he was done talking about it.

Anzu wished she could do more to help him, but she learned long ago that she simply couldn't solve everyone's problems, all she could do was hope things would work out eventually and support her friend. She was brought out of her thoughts when her cell phone rang, taking it out she looked at the ID and frowned when she didn't recognize it before answering. "Hello?"

"Hey Anzu, it's Mokuba."

Anzu smiled upon hearing the teens voice. "Hi Mokuba. How are you?"

"Good, you still up for hanging out? I have to leave really soon."

Anzu nodded, even though Mokuba couldn't see her. "Of course I do, no way I'm letting you leave like that."

Mokuba laughed. "Alright, is tomorrow ok with you?" Mokuba asked.

Anzu thought about it for a few seconds before answering. "Sure, I have to work until four but after that I'm free."

She could almost see the smile on Mokuba's face as he answered. "Perfect, I'll come and pick you up then. I gotta go, bye!"

Let's see...wow almost 4000 words, I didn't expect it would be this long, though it's true that my new writing book has bigger pages lolll. Anyway, I know there wasn't much Anzu/Seto interaction in this chapter but this is what you call setting the stage. Beside it wouldn't be interesting if at the beginning of the story they already where deep in love with one another and hooked up together at the beginning of the story. But don't worry, I expect they will be together around......maybe the middle of the story, but they will see a lot of each other until then. (more than they want to actually, poor Kaiba, he had no idea what I have in story for him.)

As for update. Once again I'm sorry but I really had those two important exam. But, I realized that even here I don't need to study like an idiot. I should update more often starting now, let's say, I promise not to keep you waiting more than two weeks and I will do my best to try and update once per week. (depending on how much you support me of course lollll)

As for Kay and Matt, well I needed some support character since the guy are not there (but we will see them eventually) You could say those too are part of me (yea, picking out different parts of myself makes it easier to make new character. I really like them though, Kay is the rational part of me and Matt is......well Matt is actually the woman in me as weird as that sound. Now if you wonder why the woman in me is a man, well let's just say I enjoy being special and I like Matt (and in my mind he's so freaking sexy I'd rape him)

Matt: That is wrong on so many levels...

Next chapter: We'll get to see some things that go trough our favorite CEO's mind and you'll get to see more of this older and extremely good looking version of Mokuba (I'd rape him too....what, there are six time more girls than boys at my school) And will we find out what is wrong with that weird supermodel?...........(everyone holds breath) .....no, that's for later. (keep in mind that depending on how I write things might turn out differently than I predict)

Please review!

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.